Posted By auntie on July 14, 2014

2.86 miles, charlestown, ri

this is a combination of two contiguous properties: nature conservancy and state wildlife management area. the yellow dot trail is short but very interesting, with some high sharp hills and rock outcroppings. the main trail through the two properties is an old cart path, and there are other unmarked trails branching off. i did a little exploring, and for a short while followed a green dot blazed trail which kind of petered out, but it was too hot, humid and buggy to do too much more.

the trailhead

the parking lot for this trail, off wilbur hill road, is just a wide spot in the road at a bend. but you can sort of see the kiosk.

open grassy forest

the terrain, at least in the direction of grass pond, is different than any place i’ve hiked around here. it’s a very open grassy forest. mmm… perhaps that’s why they call it grass pond? this is shot from the green dot trail that i sort of stumbled upon by accident. the blazes disappeared shortly after, and although i hate to do it, i ended up bushwhacking back to the cart path that bisects the two properties.

chicken

after i rejoined the main cart path, i headed back in the direction of the car, so i could take the yellow-dot trail. it was here that i found this beautiful chicken-of-the-woods fungus growing at the base of an old oak. although this is one of the “foolproof” edible mushrooms (because there is nothing else that looks like it), i’ve never collected and tried cooking chickens. something about that screaming orange color is just sort of off-putting, i guess.

i have added this hike to hikefinder and linked to both the nature conservancy map, and the ri dem map. the dem map, by the way, is no longer on the state website, so i uploaded the file i had found earlier and linked to it here.

Categories: Rhode Island, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 2–5 miles, Charlestown RI, RI